Tyvis Powell has risen from a redshirt season to become the starting nickel back for Ohio State, and it is largely because older teammates did not treat him like a forgotten soul last year.

“When you find out you’re redshirting, most people take it like, ‘Oh, man,’ ” Powell said. “I didn’t really get down about.”

One reason was because Bradley Roby, who was matched with Powell as a mentor by coach Urban Meyer, counseled the newcomer from Bedford, Ohio, on how to deal with what some players see as a slight. Roby, who is a junior and a preseason All-American, had a redshirt season himself before blossoming into an elite cornerback.

“He came to me one day and said, ‘Tyvis, you’ve only got one chance to do this in a lifetime. You should just take every day, work on it, and get better,’ ” Powell said.

Powell, then a cornerback on the scout-team defense, said that sparked more thoughts.

“ ‘I’m going against the (first-team offense) every day, so I might as well use this time to make myself better,’ so that’s what I did,” Powell said. “I had to go against Devin Smith and (Corey Brown) in practice, and they were teaching me things, like, ‘pay attention to my waist on this play,’ and stuff like that. So basically the team supported me and helped me get better.”

The coaches noticed him in the spring when they were seeking someone to step up as the fifth defensive back — or nickel — in passing situations.

At 6 feet 3 and 207 pounds, Powell looks more like a linebacker than a cornerback anyway. He took quickly to the demands of playing nickel back, a player who, against spread offenses, can play almost an entire game while the defense uses just two linebackers.

That’s what happened last week in a 40-20 win over Buffalo. It made for an enlightening first day on the job for Powell and taught him one major lesson.

“How adversity can hit, and how it can come like — that quick,” Powell said, snapping his fingers. “Sudden change. I’m not going to lie, I was kind of tired out there. But as the game went on, I kind of remembered, ‘This is the game I’ve been playing since I was 9 years old. That kind of like slowed it down for me, and I was able to do some things to help the defense.”

Meyer said Powell has room to improve, “but I believe he played pretty well for his first start.”

How much he will play against San Diego State on Saturday remains to be seen. The Aztecs are coming off a 40-19 loss to Eastern Illinois in which they threw 64 passes. But Meyer sees the Aztecs as a run-based, two-tight-end offense at heart, even under new offensive coordinator Bob Toledo.

“I don’t know how much nickel we’ll play this week,” Meyer said.

Just in case, Powell has prepared as if he will play nearly the entire game.“Because we don’t know what could happen, they could come out with some brand-new stuff in personnel and throw the ball,” Powell said. “You can’t just go off what you’ve seen on film. Every team is going to throw something new in that you haven’t seen. If they do come out in (a two-back or two-tight-end set), I’m just going to have to make my mark on special teams.”